On the eve of the 2018 Australian Open, we take a look at Seven Deadly Stats from the women’s draw.
1 – Simona Halep is the No. 1 seed at a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.
2 – of Maria Sharapova’s three first round Grand Slam losses came at the Australian Open (in 2003 and 2010). She is 47-3 in the opening rounds at the majors.
5 – players can challenge Halep for the No. 1 ranking this fortnight: Caroline Wozniacki, Elina Svitolina, Garbine Muguruza, Jelena Ostapenko and Karolina Pliskova.
6 – years since Wozniacki was last ranked No. 1 in the world. She must reach at least the semi-finals to have a chance of replacing Halep at the top of the rankings after the Australian Open. It would be the longest gap between stints at No. 1 since the computer rankings were introduced in 1975.
9 – of this year’s top-16 seeds in the women’s draw did not feature in this seeding bracket in 2017.
47 – Agnieszka Radwanska assumes the title of having the longest active consecutive Grand Slam main draw appearance streak with 47 straight participations (including this year’s Australian Open). Jelena Jankovic saw her streak come to a halt at 56 due to her withdrawal from the 2018 Australian Open due to a back injury.
77 – Venus Williams will be appearing in her 77th Grand Slam main draw this fortnight, the most in the Open Era